Kyiv’s Helicopters Flew Overhead As Paramilitaries Raided Russia

Ukrainian army helicopters supported pro-Ukraine Russian paramilitaries during their two-day raid on a border checkpoint on the Russian side of the Russia-Ukraine border last week.

A video the Russian Volunteer Corps posted yesterday depicts Mil Mi-8 helicopters in Ukrainian livery flying overhead as the corps’ fighters staged for their raid, which began on May 22 and ended a day later when the fighters retreated back to the Ukrainian side of the border.

The presence of Ukrainian helicopters is notable, even if the rotorcraft didn’t actually cross the border into Russia proper. The Russian Volunteer Corps and its close ally, the Freedom of Russia Legion, are far-right—some might say “neo-Nazi”—groups, mostly made up of Russian immigrants who oppose Russia’s wider war on Ukraine but who are outside the Ukrainian political mainstream.

The government of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been careful to keep official space between it and the two anti-Kremlin groups, even amid clear evidence of unofficial ties.

The government insists the RVC operates independently. The FRL meanwhile reportedly aligns with Ukraine’s foreign legion, which oversees foreign volunteers fighting for Kyiv, and answers to the Ukrainian military.

In any event, the government has denied any direct involvement in the May 22 raid—a denial those Mil helicopters, as well as the foreign-made Ukrainian vehicles the paramilitaries rode into Russia, clearly belies.

Denis Kapustin, the Russian Volunteer Corps’ far-right leader, gave shape to the nebulous relationship between the RVC and the Ukrainian government. “Everything we do, every decision we make, beyond the state border is our own decision what we do,” he told The New York Times.

But that doesn’t mean Zelensky’s government doesn’t provide the paramilitaries with intelligence, weapons and supplies. “Obviously we can ask our comrades and friends for their assistance in planning,” Kapustin said.

It’s not hard to understand why Kyiv would bother. The anti-Kremlin extremists are useful proxies for cross-border operations that, if performed by regular Ukrainian troops, could risk out-of-control escalation.

Ukrainian forces have been attacking targets on Russian soil since the beginning of the wider war 15 months ago. But none have involved ground forces seizing and holding ground inside Russia.

Just as Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine back in 2014 with paramilitary proxies in the lead, Ukraine now has launched its tiny, tentative counterinvasion … with its own proxies in front.

In any event, the two-day raid was a smashing success for the paramilitaries and their apparent sponsors in the Ukrainian government. Dozens of fighters from the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion captured the Grayvoron border checkpoint, five miles inside Russia just north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

The fighters scattered Russian border guards, captured some Russian armored vehicles, hoisted a flag or two, shot some videos then retreated a day later as the Russian air force bombed the border post. The RVC claimed it suffered just two wounded.

“Well done!” tweeted Mark Hertling, a retired U.S. Army general. “A raid surprises the enemy, throws the enemy off their plan and causes confusion.”

At minimal cost in people and equipment, and only modest diplomatic risk to the Ukrainian government, the paramilitaries scored a huge psychological and propaganda win—proving that the Russians can be beat not only in Ukraine, but in Russia, too.